Art History courses online and in London

Look in depth at four artists a week across a series of themes from body and power to socio-environmental change. What links can be made between artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and where is art heading?

Discover Michelangelo’s 'genius' across sculpture, painting, architecture, and poetry. This course traces his artistic journey within the dynamic world of 16th century Italy from the High Renaissance to Mannerism. It explores his encounters with contemporaries like Leonardo and Raphael, and examines how Vasari and Condivi’s biographies shaped his enduring reputation as Il Divino.

Explore Romanticism as an international movement, focusing on Francisco Goya (1746-1828) as its key example, considering issues such as historic context, biography, material experimentation and artistic and theoretic interests.

This course explores the main themes and intercultural aspects of ‘Crusader Art’. This fluid term denotes the extraordinary range of works of art and architecture produced in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem c. 1099-1291 by Muslim and Christian Latin or Byzantine artists for a multicultural clientele in the Holy Land. The influence of the booty of the 1204 Fourth Crusade will also be considered.

In this course we shall explore the Medieval history of the Sahara and the Sahel, looking at the rise of the Gold Kingdoms, Trans-Saharan trade, cultural synergy, and spread of Islam into the region.

This lecture will examine how the intersections of art, architecture, philosophy and sensory experience of Chinese gardens show continuity and change from the early modern period to the present day. In early modern China, gardens were more than places of retreat, they functioned as major social, cultural and economic sites. In our time of ecological crisis, gardens play a crucial role in mitigating pollution.

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Breughel the elder - two northern Renaissance artists, and their influence on 20th-century artists known as the Surrealists. Artists divided in time by 500 years, but who share many similarities with their strange and curious subjects and objects conjured up to ignite amazement, wonder, discussion and even outrage.

Explore the richness of Italian Renaissance art (1400-1600) in this six-session course, with visits to London’s collections, including the National Gallery, the V&A, the Wallace Collection, and the Courtauld Gallery. Alongside masterpieces by Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Titian, participants will encounter lesser-known works that illuminate everyday life, devotional practices, and the social and political world of the period. Direct engagement with these objects encourages reflection on their creation, meaning, and original context.

This course will examine visual culture borne of World War One - experiences and responses, propaganda and commemoration in paintings, prints and sculptures.

An intensive study day on the development of the Qur’an as a book and the role of patronage at important centres of production. We also look at the evolution of Arabic calligraphy, layout, and illumination; with a survey of evolving styles, the impact on secular book design, and the methods and materials of making.